


Your Red is my Blue

by Bellarke2323



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Bisexual Remus Lupin, Canon Het Relationship, F/M, Gay Sirius Black, I'm Bad At Tagging, M/M, Marauders, Marauders Era (Harry Potter), Marauders Friendship (Harry Potter), POV Remus Lupin, Remus Lupin Lives, Sirius Black & James Potter Friendship, Sirius Black Lives, The Marauder's Map
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-06-14
Updated: 2020-06-14
Packaged: 2021-03-03 22:14:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,197
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24712927
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bellarke2323/pseuds/Bellarke2323
Summary: Marauders Era. The guys are desperate to know if they all see colors in the same way after Lily mentions a muggle "noorro-syence" thingy that says people might perceive the color blue differently from one another. James wants to sneak around. Sirius wants to know if his red is Remus' blue. Remus just wants to ignore them both. Remus/Sirius. a bit Lily/James. Focuses mostly on the Marauder friendships and on the concept of perception. Wolfstar is a happy bonus <3
Relationships: James Potter/Lily Evans Potter, Sirius Black/Remus Lupin
Kudos: 2





	Your Red is my Blue

**Author's Note:**

> I choose not to say anything at all with this one, read it as you will.   
> Oh man, I lied, lol. I am specifically working on Action Tags with this fic. If you know what that is, great! Leave me a note telling me how I did with that goal, please and thank you! Of course, even if you can't help me with that I am always open to comments!

“Get your hands out of the sweets, Peter. He could have them alarmed or something.”

Remus glanced in Pete’s direction, noticing his fingertips inches from a lemon drop.

“Come on, Jamesy, leave ‘im alone. There’s no alarm” Sirius was playing with a small metal instrument of some kind on a shelf against the far wall, so Remus guessed he would know. “It’s the headmaster’s office, not the National Gallery.”

Pete’s hand dove into the pile of candy. Remus could see that he’d opted for the unsubtle fistful, rather than a single piece, judging by the dozens of wrappers that poked from between his bulging fingers. 

“Yeah, mate, but those are lemon drops.” James said, very seriously, “They’re old Dumble’s favorite. He’s bound to have some charm to protect them from all of the troublemakers that come into his office every day.”

Remus looked from where Pete had his hand, now frozen in place still fist deep in the sweets dish, to Sirius who had hastily dropped the funny-looking telescope thingy back onto the shelf and had swept over to where James and Remus were waiting near the locked cabinet.

“Aw, Prongs, you do realize we are Hogwarts’ most prolific troublemakers. I’ve been stealing candy from Dumbledore since first year and never been caught.”

“Yeah, well when I was in here last week for switching out Lily’s lupine for larkspur in Potions, I tried to steal one measly lemon drop and a loud train whistle sound came from that top thing over there until he ended the charm,“ Peter whimpered behind them. “So, I’m pretty sure he changed that. Probably because you keep stealing his lemon drops. Thanks for that by the way, mate. My ears kept ringing ‘til lights out.”

“One. Why in the world would you subject yourself to detention with Sluggy just to prank Lily? How many times do we have to talk about this, mate? And 2. Why didn’t you say anything before we broke in? Like, how about ‘oh yeah guys, there’s AN ALARM IN DUMBLEDORE’S office, might want to do something about that maybe.’”

“Guys—" Remus stepped forward to interrupt.

“That’s stupid, Padfoot. I said Dumbledore alarmed the candy dish, not his whole office. And I’ll have you know, I switched the potions ingredients for Moony.” James huffed, drawing in a bigger breath and raising his voice as Sirius rolled his eyes, clearly not believing a word James said when it came to Lily. “I don’t know if you remember but he was Lily’s potions partner last Friday, and I don’t know about you, but I’m not too keen to find out how Werewolves react to Lupine in the middle of Double Potions. I’m not surprised you didn’t notice, what with your obsession with—” 

“James Potter, you shut your mouth right now or I’ll tell mum you were the one who charmed Mrs. Longbottom’s mirror to talk back to her.”

James looked absolutely affronted at that. “What?! But she—"

“Both of you just shut up for a second.” Remus didn’t know what all of this nonsense was about, why the tension between James and Sirius had seemingly skyrocketed out of nowhere, but he was done with it. The two geniuses were going to get them in trouble at this rate, the way they were shouting at one another. “James, you’re thinking of Aconite or Monkshood, Lupine isn’t wolfsbane, though I see how you might draw that conclusion. Interestingly Lupine got its name from the claw-like shape hidden inside the flowers and because farmers from the 14th century said it ravaged the soil. I suppose it could also be connected to classical magical mythology surrounding the plant’s use in some types of mind-altering potions, though that’s purely speculation on my part. You know, I bet there is probably some pertinent information in One Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi. Spore was rather meticulous with her descriptions of plants’ properties; it seems like she’d have noted it somewhere. Or maybe in Scamander’s works. He would’ve paid more heed to the werewolf side of things. I wonder if they’ve ever collaborated? I bet Madam Pince would—”

“Moony,” Sirius nudged him, an exasperated look on his face.

“Right, sorry. Anyway, Wolfsbane is colloquially known as Monkshood or Aconite, not Lupine.”

“Colloqillily? What’s that—” Sirius kicked James lightly, cutting his hand across his throat. 

“Shut up, mate,” he whispered back.

“Besides which, we use Aconite in Draught of Living Death among other things, and I’ve made that with no wolfy problems before, when you guys wanted to get past that Acromantula in the forest, and can I just say it’s a good thing you idiots finally listened to me and dropped that whole idea because not only is that potion extremely dangerous but we don’t know how a magical creature like that would even react. You should listen to me more often. We really wouldn’t be doing this whole thing either if it were up to me. The only reason I’m here is intellectual curiosity.”

The room fell silent for a moment, save Pete’s panicked breathing.

Sirius broke it. “That’s what you always say. You know you love pranking and general mayhem just as much as—"

“On top of that, I already disabled the Sneak-o-scope.”

“The what-a-what?” James asked. 

“Sneak. O. Scope. It’s what made that noise when you got caught with your hand in the candy bowl. Dumbledore must’ve gotten it as a gift. I don’t think they’re very common. I disabled it.”

“You did?”

“Well, yeah, I’m not an idiot, James. I saw it there last week when Dumbledore called me in to talk about you messing up my potion,” Remus glared at James then, “I disabled the charm before we even said the password to get in.”

Another silence.

Sirius, again, broke it, “Well, Petey old boy, you’d better stay put until we leave just in case.”

“What? But Moony said it’s fine.” Peter’s whole body shook when he whined. That and the tone in which he said it immediately annoyed James and Sirius.  
“Sorry, Wormtail, but I think Padfoot’s right. I got rid of the one, but we don’t know if there’re any others,” Remus said. Pete’s face fell at Remus’ words, “You know we don’t want to do this without you, but it’s just not a good idea. Do you want Dumbledore to put us all in a month’s detention? Again?”

“No.”

His sad demeanor must have reached the hearts of James and Sirius because both now looked contrite, “We’re sorry, Petey. We promise we won’t even talk about it too much after. You won’t feel left out at all.”

“Yeah, and I’ll help you with your Transfig essay AND I’ll let you borrow that leather jacket I got in muggle London.”

“Yeah, Ok.”

“Well, now that that’s settled, why don’t we get back to work, boys?” James said.

They all turned to the problem at hand: The locked cabinet.

Remus pointed his wand at it, “Alohomora.”

“I already tried that, genius.”

“Sorry, James, but you’re not exactly the best at Charms practicals.”

“Yeah, but that’s like, a first year charm! What kind of wizard do you take me for?”

“I think he’s implying a bad one, Prongs” said Sirius.

They fell silent. All three focused once more on the cabinet.

James shook the door, rattling the lock but largely doing nothing of note. 

Remus tried every charm he could think of. The most he managed was making a bit of smoke emit from the lock.

“Maybe we’re overthinking this.” Sirius said reasonably. “This is Dumbledore. He would do the thing we wouldn’t expect. So, what wouldn’t we expect?”

“Well now, how are we supposed to know if it’s unexpected,” said Remus. 

“I dunno, you’re the smart one,” Sirius stared him down.

“I don’t know what you’re expecting from me, Padfoot. I can’t read Dumbledore’s mind.”

Sirius just nodded at that, averting his gaze from Remus and staring at the floor in thought.

“I think Sirius is right, though. If anyone has any chance of figuring out what charm or, I don’t know, curse, he used to lock it, it’s you.” 

Remus smiled at James’ words, but he still had no idea what to do. This whole thing was kind of insane. He didn’t know why he let them drag him into these things. He would admit, it could be a lot of fun sometimes, but breaking into the Headmaster’s office wasn’t fun. It just made him extremely nervous.   
“I really don’t have any ideas, James. I didn’t want to do this in the first place.”

“I know, Moony. But it’ll be so much fun! I swear it. Aren’t you just a little curious?”

“Yes, of course, but I don’t think it’s worth the risk of endless detentions, or, Merlin, expulsion, just to find out if we all see the same thing when we look at the color red.” He shook his head. He did not need to be expelled from the one place willing to have him. 

“No one’s gonna get expelled, Moony. I’ve planned everything out so that we won’t get caught. Dumbledore’s not even at Hogwarts, OK?”

“James, if you’ve planned everything out so well, why did I have to disable an alarm that you knew about but didn’t prepare for? And on second thought, why are we sitting here arguing about a cabinet we can’t figure out how to get into? Why didn’t you have a plan for the lock?”

“Alohomora was the plan, Moony.”

“This is Dumbledore, Prongs. He wouldn’t make something locked in his office subject to Alohomora.” He said this last word with derision.

“Didn’t stop you from trying it, though,” James said, crossing his arms over his chest as he said it.

“Yes, well. If I’d known you hadn’t made any sort of plan, I would’ve come better prepared. This is what always happens.”

“Well I always tell you if it matters so much to you that we don’t get caught then you should make the plans.”

“And I always tell you, I don’t want—”

“I’ve got it!” Sirius said from somewhere in the room. Honestly, Remus hadn’t really been paying attention to what Padfoot was up to.  
Remus and James turned toward where Sirius now stood behind Dumbledore’s desk. One by one, he opened each drawer, carelessly shuffling around inside. Remus watched with mounting horror as a red-tipped Phoenix quill flew out of the second drawer and onto the floor, leaving a bright red spot on Dumbledore’s blue carpet.

Remus darted to Sirius’ side. “What in Merlin’s name are you doing, Padfoot,” he whispered harshly, “are you insane. We’re never going to be able to put everything back the way it was.”

Sirius didn’t slow in his movements at all, but it appeared he at least heard what Remus had said, for nothing else landed on the floor and despite the quick search, Remus could see that Padfoot was doing his best to put everything back where it had started.

“Remy, I figured it out,” Sirius said, shaking off a paper clip that had caught on his finger, “Dumbledore would do the thing that no wizard or witch would think of.”

“Please don’t call me Remy, Padfoot. I hate that nickname.”

Sirius huffed, pulling out a stack of files and setting it on top of the desk before his hands disappeared back into the third drawer, “Just listen, Moony. Dumbledore would use a key.”

“Like… like a magical key?” Peter asked from where he still had his hand around a dozen or so sweets. His arm looked like it was starting to shake from the exertion, sweat gathered on his brow.

“No, a muggle one, dummy. Just a normal muggle key. Anyone trying to break into the headmaster’s office at a magical school is going to be magical themselves, so it makes sense that Dumbledore would choose the non-magical option because it’s the last resort for a magical person.”

Remus thought for a moment, “you know, that might actually be a good idea.”

“I do have them on occasion,” Sirius said, a sardonic half-smile directed for a moment in Remus’ direction before he turned his attention back to the desk and its contents, “I spend a lot of time in the muggle world. I would hope I picked up more from it than just a few Zeppelin records. A lot of the time, doing things the Muggle way is actually easier.” He moved the files he had placed on the desk back into a drawer. Remus didn’t know if it was the right drawer, but he guessed he’d have to trust that Sirius did. 

“Here it is!” Sirius pulled a square black box out of the very bottom drawer. A simple set of keys lay within. He opened the box and removed the ring, walking over to the cabinet as he did so. Remus followed.

James snatched the keys out of his hand when Sirius held them out, quickly trying and then discarding each key until one slipped smoothly into the lock with a click.

The three boys paused and looked at one another, excitement mounting. All previous bickering was forgotten in the wake of what was to come.  
James turned the key, each boy holding his breath as they listened to the click, click, of the gears. The door snicked open, a small gust of cool, damp air followed, as if the cabinet were alive and sighing.

“What’s inside? What’s there?! I wanna see.” Peter moved his hand slightly up out of the bowl as he said it.

Remus twisted around, “Wormtail, don’t move!” He turned back around.

“That’s it?” 

Remus was looking at the same thing as Sirius and was frankly just as underwhelmed. In the center of the small cabinet stood a plain, grey, stone basin. None of the intricate markings or or stained glass overlay that supposedly characterized this magical object they’d studied in their textbooks, in fact, if Remus didn’t know better he would say this wasn’t a pensieve at all. Maybe a particularly dreary, boring birdbath, but not a pensieve. There was a bit of runework at the bottom. Remus supposed despite its lackluster appearance, this particularly pensieve was likely older than the school itself.

“What time is it?” James looked to Remus.

Remus glanced at his watch, “a little after two.”

“Ok, Filch passes Dumbledore’s office between 3 and 3:30. We gotta be out of here before then.”

Remus reasoned each memory was about 10 minutes. They should have plenty of time, if Sirius and James didn’t screw around, but Remus obviously didn’t put too much faith in their ability to self-regulate, “I think it will be fine as long as we don’t stop too long between vials.”

James pulled the vials out of a small bag they had brought with them. They had thought about wearing their school robes, in which case they could have carried the vials in the pockets, but they all were just too lazy to change back into uniform when their pajamas were so comfy. He held the four vials aloft, found Pete’s scrawling handwriting on one, and placed it back into the bag.

“I call first.” James said, and before anyone could say anything to the contrary, he uncorked one vial and poured it into the basin. What had been a clear, flat pool of water sloshed a bit as the memory was poured in. At first, it seemed like oil added to water, with neither mixing. Remus watched as James pulled his wand from where he kept it on these little adventures, up his sleeve. James stuck it in, stirring a bit.

“I’m not sure that’s a good idea, Prongs. You don’t just stick your wand places.”

Sirius snickered. 

Between one second and the next, James jumped back as the pool abruptly changed before their eyes, the memory finally mixing in and creating a shiny, swirling mirage. When Remus looked closely he swore he could see bits of the memory already, playing out upon the surface of the water, like a reflection without defined edges.

Sirius looked up at Remus, “So how do we do this? You remember from class, right? Because I have to be honest, I wasn’t really paying attention.”

Remus rolled his eyes, despite the fondness he felt for Sirius’ short attention span, “We just put our faces in it.”

“What? Really? We just stick our faces right in?” James cleaned off his wand with the front of his shirt before sticking it back up his sleeve.

“Yes, really.”

“Ok, then. On the count of three?

Sirius and Remus nodded at James’ suggestion.

“One, Two, Three!”

Remus quickly dunked his head forward, only to feel an abrupt sharp pain shoot through his skull. He staggered back a bit, his hand coming up to grip the now throbbing spot on the top of his head. “Ow.”

Two identical sentiments sounded from beside him, and he looked up to see Sirius and James also clutching their heads. 

Some annoyed part of his brain registered Peter behind them, giggling.

“You should’ve, you should’ve seen you guys” Peter had trouble standing up while he said it, snorting so hard he was forced to bend over, his elbow smacking down onto the table as he did, “Ow.” Peter’s giggles died down but his scrunched up eyes were still streaming as he leaned up on his elbow to look at them.

“Yeah, alright, alright,” James said, rubbing at his forehead roughly, “We better do it a bit more carefully this time.”

Remus was a bit shaken up and unsure now as to whether they should go through with it at all, if they couldn’t even do the first part right. But he resumed his previous position in front of the basin anyway, nudging Sirius until he stumbled into James. The two shoved at each other for a second before spacing themselves out a bit further away than the first time.

“Ok. On three again, but this time just put your heads in slowly,” Sirius said slowly, like if he mimicked the target behavior, they would do it. “I already have a headache from last time,”

James took over, repeating his countdown from earlier, “Ok. Here we go. One, Two, Three…”

They all glanced at each other before moving at the same time, much more slowly, until their faces were submerged below the surface of the liquid.

The room fell away, literally, as Remus felt like his insides were about to make an abrupt acquaintance with his outsides. The sensation was the same as when he had gone on a muggle ride at the fair, right before he had puked on a fellow rider. He couldn’t make sense of up or down, left or right, he couldn’t even make sense of color, which was unfortunate given that a color experiment was their whole reason for being there in the first place. Just as he felt like he would die if it didn’t end, he was suddenly on the floor of the Gryffindor common room, a retching Sirius and a heaving James beside him.

“Blech, ehckk,” Sirius retched some more, “that was bloody awful!”


End file.
